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NSW police have issued a fine against an US-based online influencer and handed out two driving violation citations for reported negligent driving after a large group of e-bike riders converged on the famous Sydney landmark during the busy commute on Tuesday.

The Incident: An Illegal Gathering

A gathering of approximately 40 people riding electric bikes and motorbikes travelled along the primary roadway of the bridge, where cycling is prohibited. The assembly subsequently reversed direction and rode through the city’s CBD and Haymarket.

"This had a risk of serious injury or fatalities," stated a senior police official the officer on Wednesday.

Law enforcement said they did not immediately pursue the riders due to concerns for public safety but instead located the group at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the city gardens, where they dispersed.

Fines Imposed for Content Creator

On Saturday, authorities stated they had issued the US social media influencer known as the influencer, 26, with two violation tickets for careless operation (with no death or previous bodily harm), carrying a fine of over five hundred dollars and penalty points each, connected to the bridge incident. They added that the investigation is ongoing.

The influencer is said to have over 3.4 million followers on YouTube and over 1.2m on Instagram.

Influencer's Comments

The content creator gave comments to a major newspaper recently after the incident spread rapidly on news sites and social media, saying he regretted giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I accept the blame. It was one of the safest ride-outs I have witnessed," he said. "I am a visitor here, and I intend to abide by the laws and norms of Sydney. When I decided to do a meet and greet it was not meant to include a ride-out, it was just to greet people under the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, it was my fault we ended up on the bridge and I had a decision to make: whether the group completes the entirety of the bridge and comes back, which is a crime. Or we turn around, essentially, before we’re on the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to go back."

Broader Context on E-Bike Regulation

The increase of e-bikes on streets across the country has prompted growing calls for stricter rules. A senior government official, Mark Butler, recently said that non-compliant electric bikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Kids have done reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the injuries that are presenting at our ERs are truly severe," he stated. "We must make sure we prevent these things coming into the country [and] police are given the powers to take strong action, to take them away, to destroy them, to dispose of them."

The state reported 226 injuries related to electric bikes in 2024. However, in the initial half of the following year, that number surged to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four fatalities.